The impacts of climate change will be channeled primarily through the water cycle. Climate simulation models are converging in terms of forecasts for the MENA region, that already suffers scare water quantities and poor quality, with expected higher temperature and decreasing rain fall. While conventional water supply alternatives are getting...

Nearly 80 percent of seasonal crop areas in the Near East and North Africa Region are rainfed, a system whose water source is highly variable, insufficient to satisfy the crop water demand, and often exposed to drought. These conditions make farming in rainfed areas highly risky and unpredictable, with negative...

Au bout de plus de sept ans de conflit, la production de céréales, qui était déjà en baisse de 40% par rapport à son niveau d'avant la guerre, aux alentours de 2,5 à 2,7 millions de tonnes par an contre 4 millions de tonnes auparavant, "va subir une nouvelle réduction"...

Even though drought is a familiar phenomenon in the region, over the past four decades, droughts have become more widespread, prolonged and frequent - likely due to climate change. The region is not only highly prone to drought, but also one of the world's most water-scarce areas, with desert making...

Experience suggests that smallholder farmers are unlikely to adopt new innovations without improved models of technology transfer. However, the question of how to design innovative and cost-effective technology transfer strategies has not yet been sufficiently addressed. There is a risk that if we do not critically analyze and carefully manage...

The 'Mind the Gap' research project is testing new and existing models of transferring innovative technology packages to smallholder farmers by using an RCT approach, aiming to improve dissemination strategies to increase technology adoption by smallholders. Understanding which extension approaches have the greatest success rate help to improve future agricultural...

Dans le cadre de ce projet (2015-2018), la FAO a travaillé dans 21 pays (voir la carte ci-dessous) au travers de partenariats avec des OSC nationales pour la réalisation d’ateliers de sensibilisation et de renforcement des capacités afin de:  Améliorer les connaissances et la compréhension des OSC par rapport...

Les agriculteurs-trices des zones rurales de montagne au Maroc sont confrontés à de nombreux défis parmi lesquels la pauvreté, la dureté des conditions de vie et la dégradation de l’environnement suite au changement climatique. Le projet d’agro-écologie au Sud du Maroc a été lancé en 2015 par l’Organisation Non Gouvernementale...

Seven years into the conflict in the Syrian Arab Republic continues devastating lives and forcing millions to flee from their homes. While the intensity of the war may have subsided in 2017, the rate of displacement was higher than the rate of return. In 2018, an integrated humanitarian and resilience...

Agronomic practices and management decisions can have a significant impact on the type and number of weeds on a farm. Understanding this relationship can help organic producers manage weeds through avoidance, and various cultural management practices. The most important steps of non-chemical weed management are prevention, diagnosis, and a number of...

Les évolutions socioéconomiques récentes de l’Algérie et l’accentuation de l’aridité du climat local induisent des transformations dans les pratiques et les stratégies des exploitations agricoles. Cette étude analyse la réaction des petites exploitations familiales d’élevage bovin des régions semi-arides de Sétif face aux contraintes économiques et aux incertitudes du milieu....

Food legumes are particularly suited to sustainable agriculture. ICARDA is developing and disseminating improved varieties and production technologies so farmers can benefit from the increasing demand for these climate-smart crops. The result: stable yields, healthier soils, and enhanced food and nutritional security.

In 2005, we began experimenting with SRI methods at Al-Mishkhab Rice Research Station (MRRS) in Najaf. With SRI practices, roots grow larger and deeper and do not degenerate for lack of oxygen in the soil as occurs when rice fields are kept continuously flooded. SRI is considered as a methodology...

Cairo, Egypt – The 2018 annual meeting of scientists and leadership from ICARDA and Egypt’s ARC, short for Agricultural Research Center, was an opportunity to take stock of the results that have been achieved in the past three years thanks to the partnership. It was also a chance to renew...

Degradation of rangelands is a major global concern, but land degradation processes in the rangelands are poorly understood. This lack of understanding has contributed to poorly-informed interventions and policies that have sometimes exacerbated degradation. Rangeland can become degraded due to crop cultivation, over-exploitation of livestock, over-extraction of woody biomass, and...

Agricultural mechanization hire enterprises, commonly known as hire services, are service businesses that provide human, animal and mechanical-driven power technologies and equipment services. Much has been documented over the decades about such services at the farm level, but little has been documented on the role that hire services can have...

The main objective of the paper was to conduct an exploratory research, using the literature review methodology, to ascertain the current status of knowledge on entrepreneurship in farming (agripreneurship) in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). The literature review found many definitions of agripreneurship and who is a farmer entrepreneur...

On the occasion of FAO Egypt's 40th Anniversary, this booklet is produced to highlight FAO's achievements and support to the Egyptian Government over the past 40 years. It will give a glimpse on how FAO started its work in Egypt and will also highlight the main projects that made a...

Olive and olive oil production, which is widespread throughout the Mediterranean region, plays an important social, economic and environmental role in producing countries. Although Egypt has a comparative advantage in the production olive crop, which generates a distinct economic return, whether marketed locally or exported, Egypt occupies the 10th place...

The Smallholder Farmers’ Dataportrait of the ESA Small Family Farms Team is a comprehensive, systematic and standardized data set on the profile of smallholder farmers, bringing out the characteristics of family farms across the world. It is designed in such a way that differences between countries and regions can be...